Factorio Forums

I'd like to see fracking as an enhancement to the pumpjack to extend the useful life of the oil wells. Obviously you would also need a water source ...

Don't forget the other useful features of fracking:

- small earthquakes damage factories
- all alien nests in 5km radius die
- lakes can now be set on fire

That's a terrific idea However, Fracking implies multiplicating the wells, as a fracking well tends to get "empty" really very fast.
Therefore, if fracking was added, it would need some way to automate the massive amount of wells that will be needed (and that wouln't last long).

I don't think adding earthquakes just as a side effect of fracking would be a good idea (however, if earthquakes ever made it into vanilla, then fracking should definitely produce a lot of them).
I don't agree with all the nests dying in a 5 km radius, but :
- Very high pollution
- Spontaneous fires in areas where fracking is made (for example when a machine / weapon is used in that area), that would propagate across water and anything flammable in reach (bye bye the nice forest depolluting your mess ).